JRA7-HaSP: Light-and heavy-quark hadron spectroscopy

The spectrum of hadrons is composed of bound states of quarks and gluons. The distinctive property of confinement in strong interactions, which are described by Quantum Chromo-Dynamics (QCD), prevents quarks and gluons from appearing as free particles. A new generation of dedicated experiments in hadron physics has been proposed with the aim of uncovering properties of strong interactions and specifically the mysteries of confinement. Some of these experiments are already in operation and several more are planned for the near future in the main EU laboratories (CERN, Mainz, Bonn, GSI) and abroad (TJNAF/US, BESIII/China, J-PARC/Japan, Belle/Japan). These new experiments will produce an unprecedented amount of high-precision data that requires a level of sophistication in analysis never before achieved. The challenge for the hadron physics community is to synergize the theoretical and experimental efforts to develop best practices for analyzing and interpreting the complex experimental data, developing a sound analysis framework that incorporates latest advances in theory and phenomenology and a set of tools to manipulate, analyze, and preserve the data.

Thus, the most advanced and innovative theoretical techniques (effective theories, analyticity constraints, unitarity re-summations and dispersion relations, Lattice-QCD (LQCD) simulations and analysis, etc.) need to be fully developed and applied for a solid interpretation of the experimental results. Observables need to be interpreted using robust methods that rely only on the basic theoretical principles, and compared to the best solutions provided by the fundamental theory of the strong interaction via LQCD or systematic effective field theory expansions.

These goals can only be achieved through a large-scale collaborative effort that takes full advantage of the expertise in hadron physics communities in Europe and in the rest of the world. The HaSP network activity aims to coordinate the leading European institutions active in hadron spectroscopy with the objective of making progress in: development of theoretical, phenomenological and computational foundations for amplitude; establishment of best practices for accessing systematic uncertainties in analysis of hadron reaction data and interpretation of physics results.